While the sun might be shining brighter on the Boston Globe these days, a cloud of uncertainty still hovers over its sibling, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.
The T&G reported
Friday that the paper's retired editor, Harry Whitin, and Polar Beverages Chief Executive Officer Ralph Crowley, Jr., have pulled out of negotiations to buy the broadsheet, which has been on and off
the market for several years.
Whitin and Crowley first tried to buy the paper in 2009, when the New York Times actively sought bids for the Globe, the T&G and other related properties.
The papers, along with their respective websites and Boston.com, were later sold to Red Sox owner John Henry in 2013 for $70 million.
While Henry has been emphatic about his desire to
jump start the financially troubled Globe, he's said the T&G would be better off with a local owner. According to the T&G, Whitin and Crowley were the only known local potential bidders.
So who will end up with the T&G?
Newsroom bets are on Gatehouse Media or Digital First Media. Gatehouse already owns over 100 publications in Massachusetts, including The
Patriot Ledger, The MetroWest Daily News, The Enterprise of Brockton, The Standard-Times of New Bedford, and the Cape Cod Times. Digital First Media, which owns several newspapers in the
state, is publisher of the Fitchburg Sentinel & Enterprise and The Lowell Sun.
And how much would they have to cough up for the 148-year-old broadsheet and its website?
The T&G reported in February that the New York Times, for tax purposes, had valued the T&G at roughly $7 million. The Times bought the paper in 2000 for around $295 million.